Centre for Research in Human Flourishing (CRHF)
Hands holding a side profile of head with brain as a colourful tree  

The Centre for Research in Human Flourishing (CRHF) promotes the idea that flourishing is the overall goal of all education. We are interested in understanding and advancing the role of education in promoting flourishing, through studying personal growth processes, developing person-centred pedagogy for human flourishing, studying flourishing practices oriented towards optimal functioning across the life span and enhancing well-being. Applications to professional practice include work in the fields of educational, psychotherapeutic, and organisational systems.

The Centre for Research in Human Flourishing (CRHF) was established in 2015 to study the processes and outcomes of optimal functioning, with interests in person-centred pedagogy, well-being education, human potential, agency and autonomy, mindfulness, character strengths, social behaviour, and human systems. 

The CRHF adopts an interdisciplinary approach to understanding lifelong human flourishing. We study human relations and the nature of social environments that promote or inhibit human flourishing and identify those factors that best nurture its development. We are interested in how this knowledge can be applied to support individual thriving, personal and professional growth and flourishing in policy and practice contexts. The CRHF views education as a social, relational and personal growth process, maximising the potential for people to thrive.

At the heart of our activities is a humanising and compassionate approach towards identifying, developing, and supporting the processes that enable human flourishing. Our research aims to inform educators, leaders, counsellors and other helping professionals in education, social work, and health services by influencing policy development, training, and practice. Our research covers approaches to flourishing from philosophical, social, political and psychological perspectives.

Themes that are particularly associated with CHRF are:

Educational process and outcomes

 

Positive educational applications

 

Psychotherapy and counselling

 
 

How we are making a difference

Researchers in the CRHF collaborate with educators in schools and colleges, other academics in psychology and philosophy, and practitioners in psychotherapy and counselling, to study different contexts of human development and experience. We have written textbooks for practitioners in counselling, education  and psychology.

Centre staff and students work closely with the Nottingham-based Human Flourishing Project (HFP) which provides individual therapy focused on personal learning, growth and development. The HFP is a research clinic directly lifting wellbeing within the city.

 
 We have been partnering with the Royal National Children's SpringBoard Foundation and DfE to explore how to enhance flourishing in groups of vulnerable and looked after children.
 
We are working with local community organisations and statutory services to promote flourishing within the city.
 
 
Blue background with white coloured people icons joined by lines to represent a network

Membership

Meet the CRHF team

Shining light blub in foreground with connected cogs against dark background, giving idea of thinking and ideas

Projects

Key CRHF projects

Two female and one male postgraduate student sitting round a table talking

PGR students

Join the CRHF team

 
 

Centre for Research in Human Flourishing

School of Education
University of Nottingham
Jubilee Campus
Nottingham, NG8 1BB


+44 (0)115 951 4543